Owing to the current high price of gold, silver and other precious metals, part-time, or weekend, miners are again working both hard-rock and placer deposits.
Numerous commercial mines have also been newly opened, enlarged or re-activated.
In all types of mining operations, it becomes necessary to separate the precious metals from the gangue, or tailings.
Although the market place as well as the patent literature, including the Ore Concentrator disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 872,555, to J. R. Capps, afford examples of devices capable of recovering precious metals while discarding unwanted material, there is still considerable room for improvement.
There is a particular need for a relatively small versatile unit which can readily be carried to and set up at a mining site and used in conjunction with any mining process for the recovery of precious metals from concentrated ore.